My Pa the Mocking Bird
by KrazyCat6167
Summary: It's been years since the trial and Tom's daughter wants to know what happened. Nice little one-shot I made for English. Enjoy!


**This is an English assignment from One of Tom's kids PoV. This is the little girl that Atticus gave his finger to before he told Helen that Tom was dead. She is older in this. Enjoy.**

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I don't remember my pa; he died before I could start remembering. my older brother Sam says that pa died when I was getting the hang of walking. Though I never knew him personally, I know enough about him from what people say to get a grasp of his character.

They say he was a good, honest man; a respectable negro. They say he was strong as they come and just as kind. Once, when the Jacksons still had youngins running about, their dad was sick and had to stay in bed. Their young boys weren't old enough to lift an ax yet, so Mrs. Jackson was chopping the firewood. My pa was coming along the road and called out, "Evenin' Ma'am, you need help with that?" Mrs. Jackson said she'd sure appreciate it and my dad walked over to her, picked up the ax in his good arm and started hacking away at the wood.

I would love to meet him, but I can't yet. As I said before, he died before I could remember. I've heard bits and pieces of what happened when I was little; I heard he was accused of something awful, that it was white guy's word against a black man's, that he really didn't stand a chance in court but that his lawyer, Atticus Finch, gave the jury a real run for their money. Finally, when I was nearing sixteen, I wanted to hear the whole story. One day I went up to the preacher, Reverend Sykes, and asked him to tell the story. I knew he was there when it happened and that he was my best bet of figuring out the truth.

Reverend sighed and wiped his face. He looked at me and said, "I guess you're old enough to know now. Please, take a seat, this may take awhile." He gestured to one of the seats on his front porch and I sat down. He took a seat also and rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. "It was well over fourteen years ago. Your pa was working for Mr. Link Deas down the road and would pass by the Ewell house everyday; on one day, the oldest, Mayella, asked your pa if he would chop up a chiffarobe for her. He did and when Mayella went to get him a nickel for his troubles, he said that she didn' hav'ta."

Reverend went on to say that from that day on Mayella always had seemed to have something for my pa to do. One day in November, he was walking past and Mayella called to him, as usual, and my pa went in her yard and looked around for anything that she may want chopped, but Mayella said that it was the door, that it needed fixing. My pa could tell something was off but couldn't place his finger on it. My pa tested out the door and found nothing wrong with it. He then figured out what was wrong, the other Ewell children were nowhere to be found.

My pa asked where the others were and Mayella said that she was able to save up seven nickels in a year and told them to get ice cream. My pa thought that was a good thing to do for her siblings and seeing as he could do nothing for her since the door didn't need fixing. Mayella said there was and asked him to get something from high up.

My pa pulled up a chair and was reaching for the box she wanted when Mayella, in a way, launched herself at him. She was hugging him around the waist and was kissing the side of his face and told him to kiss her. I was appalled by this and looked at Reverend with my mouth hanging open. "Reverend, didn' she know my pa was married? Didn' she know he had kids? Surely she must've, we only live up th' road."

"I'm sure she was aware Nicole", Reverend told me. He continued his story by saying that my pa refused her advances and was trying to get her out of the way from the door, without hurting her, so he could leave. Then Mr. Ewell was yelling foul things through the window and startled, my pa went running out the back. Later my pa was accused of rape and arrested.

If I was appalled at Mayella, I was horribly in shock with this news. I knew he was accused of something awful, but rape? That was flat out crazy!

Reverend continued his story and I picked my jaw up from where it had fallen to the floor.

The next summer, they finally got around to my pa's trial. My pa had Atticus Finch as his lawyer, one of the best lawyers out there I heard, but that it was a losing battle. That didn't seem to stop Mr. Finch from trying. He took all the evidence he got and made it work for him. Atticus's children, who were up in the balcony with the other blacks and Reverend, thought for sure that they were going to win, that my pa would be seen as innocent. Reverend said that Atticus certainly had the jury think about for a long time, a few hours, but the result was to be as expected. Guilty, guilty, guilty, and guilty.

My pa was moved to prison to wait for the appeal, but to him, there was nothing left. He tried to run and was just about over the fence when the guards finally got around to shooting him. People speculated that if he was whole, my pa certainly would have made it.

Mr. Link Deas hired my ma and now has my two older brothers working for him as well.

I now know the whole story of what happened to my pa and it's just tragic. I certainly would love to meet him. Reverend says I will someday, just not now, and that I better be the best I can be to get to where he's going. I try every day and I have a good feeling about it. I'll see him and finally get to say 'hello' and 'I love you'.

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**I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading. :)**


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